Chinese dramas and films

Zhao Lusi’s studio has announced the acquisition of adaptation rights for nine projects. The actress is set to produce at least one of them, marking her debut as a producer. However, it is still unknown in which of these she will also appear as an actress.

Based on the promotional posters, the slate spans historical dramas, thrillers, contemporary romance, and time-travel narratives, with visual designs clearly tailored to a female audience.

Fanchina has gathered available information on these projects. At least three of them were selected through a recent original-script competition held by Zhao Lusi’s studio.

«Sonder I Am Not an NPC»

(«Sonder 我就不是NPC»)

This is the first project to go into production, with filming scheduled to kick off on August 22. The cast includes Bao Jieyi, Zhou Zhi, Hou Ben, Wei Xiao, and others.

NPC stands for «Non-Player Character» – a term used in games and films for secondary or background characters.

Sonder is a neologism coined by John Koenig in 2012 for his project «The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows». It captures that sudden realisation that every stranger you pass on the street has a life as rich, complex, and vivid as your own. In that moment, you understand that every person is the protagonist of their own story – and in their narrative, you are just as much an extra as they are in yours.

The story takes place in a world where several women suddenly become aware that they are trapped inside a script, serving merely as NPCs with predetermined fates. Refusing to accept this, they join forces to break free from the plot and rewrite their lives on their own terms.

«Sonder I Am Not an NPC» marks the first project for which Zhao Lusi’s studio serves as producer.

«Farewell Letter»

(«告别信»)

This is an adaptation of the novel «Für jede Lösung ein Problem» (十三封自杀告别信, Thirteen Suicide Farewell Letters) by German author Kerstin Gier.

It is a romantic comedy with a dark, black-comedy edge. The heroine is a 30-year-old single woman who makes a living writing pulp fiction. Her family regards her as a disgrace and a failure, her boyfriend marries her best friend, and her publisher drops her contract.

In despair, she decides to end her life. But before taking that final step, she sends 13 scathing, brutally honest farewell letters to everyone who has ruined her life. At the very last moment, her plan is derailed by an absurd twist of fate – and her tragedy begins to transform into a dark comedy.

«We»

(我们)

Screenwriters: Zhu Jiangchen and Wu Maina.

This script was selected through Zhao Lusi’s studio script competition.

The poster features two girls framed by film reel imagery.

No details about the plot are currently available.

«Who Calls Me from Her Land»

(谁在他方呼唤我)

This is an adaptation of the novel «Who Calls Me from Afar» by Xiao Hu Panwei (Xiao Hu Ruwei).

The poster says:

«She returned home, only to find it strange. The river took her mother, and with her, the answers she once believed in. She searched for the truth, only to learn that some people can only truly be seen after they are gone».

According to the novel, this is a drama with elements of a light detective story and women’s fiction, centred on mother-daughter relationships. The action takes place in 2013 in a provincial setting. The heroine, who has been studying abroad, receives news of her mother’s death and rushes home. The death appears to be an accident – her mother drowned in the Yangtze after drinking. At the same time, the father of the 18-year-old male lead, a forest ranger, is arrested. The fates of the two young protagonists, who were never meant to meet, become intertwined as they begin investigating the two cases together – and the cases turn out to be connected.

«Black Snow»

(黑雪)

Screenwriter: Wei Yuhui.

This project was also selected through Zhao Lusi’s studio script competition.

No plot details are available. The poster shows a girl in traditional dress against a snowy landscape of an old village with small houses.

«He Has Killed Me in a Dream»

(他在梦里杀过我)

This is a mystical thriller with horror elements, set in Republican-era China. The heroine keeps having the same nightmare in which a man brutally kills her. The dreams are so vivid that when she wakes up, she finds physical marks on her body corresponding to the injuries she sustained in the dream. As she investigates, she discovers with horror that the man from her dreams actually exists in the waking world. The boundaries between the two worlds begin to blur, and what happens in her sleep starts to unfold in reality.

The poster, rendered in red and black tones, shows the heroine caught between two worlds – one inverted above, representing modernity, and below, an old city of Republican China.

«Rather Be Myself»

(宁作我)

This script was also selected through Zhao Lusi’s studio competition. Notably, Zhao Lusi herself serves as executive screenwriter and is involved in writing the script.

宁作我 is a phrase frequently found in Chinese literature, expressing the determination to remain true to one’s nature no matter what.

The tagline reads: «Rather Be Myself. One origin, two fates.»

The poster lists character names: 宁绮罗 (Níng Qǐluó) and 宁无缺 (Níng Wúquē) – a female and a male name.

The genre is listed as period drama, romance, fantasy, and palace intrigue.

The story may involve doppelgängers, reincarnation, or alternate identities.

«The Shuttle Keeper»

(The Shuttle Master, 执梭师, Zhí suō shī)

Adaptation of the novel «The Shuttle Master» by En Yang.

The poster features the tagline: «One Shuttle Crosses Time, A Thousand Threads Weave a Dream».

The novel was included in the second annual «Influential Short Stories» ranking and received the «Most Promising Work for Adaptation» award for 2025. The author, En Yang, was also named to the «China Internet Literature Influence List» among new authors for 2025.

«The Shuttle Master» is a historical romance with fantasy elements, built on the concept of a time loop. The heroine, Empress Jiang Wan of the great Yu dynasty, desperately searches for her lover Xie Changyin. To find him, she obtains the «Shuttle», which enables time travel, and goes back to the past. There, she poses as the deceased maid A Qiao and stays close to the young Xiao Yi. As the story unfolds, she discovers that Xie Changyin and Xiao Yi are the same person in different timelines. She herself is also different incarnations of one soul (A Qiao, Yuan Yi, and others). The protagonists keep meeting at different points in time, each time becoming either a «light in the window» or a «replacement» («替身» – someone loved not for themselves, but because they remind another of someone else) for each other.

The «Shuttle» here is likely a metaphor for a weaver's tool capable of interlacing fates, moving across timelines, or weaving reality itself.

«The Tale of Lanterns»

(逢灯记, Feng Deng Ji, When Lanterns Meet)

Adaptation of the novel «The Tale of Lanterns».

This is a historical period drama.

The narrative is built around the protagonist and several self-contained story arcs.

The heroine, Lan Jin, is the daughter of a wealthy family that was destroyed nine years ago. She survived by a miracle, literally returning from the dead. Now she operates under the name of the organisation «Encounter the Lantern» («逢灯»), taking on various cases. She helps a noblewoman reclaim her dowry and her mother’s remains, restores the rights and property of a man who was presumed dead, rescues elderly women in distress, and more. But Lan Jin is not only helping others – she is also weaving a network for her own revenge. When she takes on a case involving the former wife of the deposed crown prince, she realises the hour of her revenge has come.

The poster captures the atmosphere of the Chinese Lantern Festival (Yuanxiao Jie). Girls in beautiful traditional attire stand on a balcony overlooking an endless sea of lights, lanterns, and architecture. The title «The Tale of Lanterns» hints at a romantic story that might unfold during such a festival, which in Chinese culture is often associated with the birth of love.

Source